Paragon ride review, May3rd & 4th!.

Ok, here's my little tale. (An you thought SqueakyGirl's was long)

Packed and loaded the truck up thrusday/friday and headed off for Red Ridge Campground for a weekend of what i hoped to be fun (it did). I arrived to findout that one other camper had arrived. I signed in, got directions to camp, and saw it was PapaKeith and SqueakyGirl. They were setting up the pop-up that PK acquired and i began to unload my bike. With everything set and ready to go there was nothing else to do but kick back and enjoy the afternoon. PK and SG left to get "refreshments" so i kicked back and took alittle nap. I started to get alittle worried as LoriKTM and OffroadWarrior hadnt shown up yet. Needless to say i didnt see the part in Lori's post about leaving at 6am Tomorrow! Anyways i told PK that if it wasnt for me showing up he'd probably think he had the wrong weekend.

As night fall fell Flyin Scot pulled up with 2 extremely excited kids. Found out that this was their first camping trip and we thought we'd make it enjoyable. Seeing it was the right thing to do i proceeded to corrupt Alister's (or is it Alastar or wrong all together, help me?) kids. :laugh: Can you believe they've never heard of a flaming marshmallow? Well they do now but my plan backfired as i fell victim to it. :| They learned (along with the rest of the camp) why i say "I hate Rabbits" while sitting around a campfire. 12:15 am arrived and everyone headed off to bed. Meanwhile since i cant sleep if consuming beer (dont ask me why as i dont know) but i wound up being awake til 4:30 am and up at 6:30am with the rest of the camp.

After breakfast we packed up bikes and made sure we were at Paragon by 10am for roll call. We wind up with 25 riders which was enough to make the 25 person min. set to receive the group discount. Scooter offered to pay his way (he gets free passes to park for helping guide people around it, i think thats why) since we kept coming up with 24 people. :thumb: Everyone heads out in groups for the day which everyone will post their events themselves. I went with the campground group and had a blast. SG's story tells most of our ride but i wanted to throw in that Flyin Scot's son had a slight spill doing a superman off the side of his bike with his thigh landing right on a big rock. Like a champ he was back up and ripping around on his bike. :worship: While the beginner group was playing in the sandpit OffroadWarrior and LoriKTM played on the steeper hill climbs. I follow Dave up this semi big but steep hill only to findout we had to go back down the hill. I replied with "I dont go down hills, only up them." I proceed to find a easier way back down with no luck. So Lori comes up the hill and i follow her down a less steep hill but curvy one that Dave found for us. After some more climbs we head back for lunch.

After lunch we all head out for the single track which SG mentioned. Scooter took lead and OffroadWarrior, LoriKTM and I went on some very nice single track. This lead to some very interesting ST that gave Lori and I alittle workout. Mostly mine was on how to start a bike. I dont know why those silly Canadian's said you cant take MX bikes to Paragon. :p Needless to say i hadnt even seen the worst ST yet! I proceed to hook up the Helmet camera only to findout i left the battery pack for it in the truck, i forgot alot of things that weekend. We head back in the afternoon so OffroadWarrior could take out his Trials bike. I hangout with SqueakyGirl while PK goes for a spin.

Saturday's campfire was a blast with lots of stories, tales, and good laughs! Besides the riding this is one of the best parts of our little DRN get togethers. Nothing beats kicking back with a bunch of guys you "think" you know for the forum only to findout they are 100% better in person.

Sunday we head out for more riding. We got to see afew minor falls, lots of new challenges met and a nice belly flop into a small stream pool by none other than Trigger! I wish i had a bigger battery for the camcorder as that would of been a killer to have on tape. After lunch we were in for a real treat with Eugene leading the way. All this time OffroadWarrior kept it easy for us knowing the group of riders we had and Eugene had to do this to us! Just kidding, i enjoyed every bit of it including the bike size boulders. This challenged afew of us in the group and i really learned what the Canadian's meant by Paragon is not for MX bikes. Well atleast not a YZ450F! I did alright but it just wasnt geared or designed for that type of riding. Its like taking a speed boat on a creek. We all survived and we all made it to the top of Howe Hill, well most of us. Keep blaming SqueakyGirl Trigger. I made it past the carnage and tape to prove it. Also on this tape is none other than RM_guy explaining to PapaKeith that he never made it to the top of the hill going the hard way after telling everyone he just came up that way and made it. Needless to say he forgot i had a camera strapped to my head. You gotta love it! I wound up having bike troubles from there only to findout i forgot to turn back on the gas after the small break on Howe Hill. Duh!!

After that we have the boulder trail and afew other small trails before heading back to the trail head. On the way back i pull a nice face plant on a rocky downhill trail. It was so quick that i didnt even get my hands out in front to stop myself. Too bad the helmet camera was out of juice our you'd get a 1st person view of it. From there OffroadWarrior stops off to play on the Jeeps obstical course. He did pretty good but Trigger wouldnt let him have the glory. Funny thing is Trig just couldnt cut the mustard and wound up giving us a nice crash again. I'm glad i had too much money tied up into camera equipement otherwise i'd be laying beside him on the ground. Papakeith said "Screw that" and fired the big 500 straight for the course making it to the top in record time! The only problem is what goes up must come down. Only Pk took that the wrong way and did a nice header into the ground. No harm, no foul!

That pretty much wraps things up for the day. We all say our good byes and wished we all lived closer so we could do this more often. I packed the truck and headed off leaving my Driver's license at the park's office. I only remembered when i pulled my wallet out of my pocket when i got home. Being it was 6:45 when i got home i called Paragon to make sure they werent out looking for me. I received the answering machine so i figured they went home too. I politely asked if they could mail it to me. Well that's it til next time! I hadnt planned on going to Montrose in June but after this weekend i just might even if its just to visit. If i get my promotion this week then i'll be there for sure as i'll have weekends off.

Hey it was great meeting most of you and riding with you. I was of corse running late and got into Paragon parking lot Sat morning around 11:00 or so just in time to hook the back of the ride with Scott, Squeek, and the kids. I spent some time riding with them in the sand pit and then hooked with some other riders that came through looking for the single track and rode a while with them before hooking up with PaThumper guy (I think) and his bud riding Zuk Thumpers with street tags, we had a decent rip and those guys riding speed was a good match for me and we covered some ground before I peeled off for lunch around 2:30. I met up with some buds in the camp ground at lunch and hung with them for a while and by then it was a bit late and I hooked up with some locals for a nice dusk non paragon ride that was awesome.
I did make 10:00 AM Sun morning despite being abducted and being forced to hang out, drink beer, and go for an 11 PM off rode station wagon ride to the Uni mart for Ice tea, milk, and TastyKake pies,,, Don't ask as I still dont understand it myself :) .
Sunday morning I finally got a chance to meet and talk with the DRN crowd. You guys are very cool and a great group as I knew you would be. Sunday riding was fun and it was great watching Sam learn to ride trial by fire style, she accepted every challenge with a real go get em attitude and hung in there. She was way to clean on Saturday but after the mud bath on Sunday she looked more the part :) . It was great fun riding with Dave and Lori, I would ride with them again any time, very good riders! Tirgger man was a riot aiming that M1 A1 Abrams XT tank at anything that looked wet or nasty. I was nervous at one point we were in the vally and lots of deep mud and the Trigger man was on my 6, lucky for me either he was mercyfull or the XT lacked the agility or brake power to out menuver my trusty WR as I was sure to block the inside line and accelearate sharply by the puddels :) . The XT did a gret impression of a boomer class sub (pictures to be posted when I dl the camera) and Trigger even showed us it could be used as a chipper shreder and log splitter, I swear he was hung up on dead trees for like 3 minutes and just kept pulling lumber out from under the bike.
Ill defanatly take a copy of the vidio, did you get the part where you tried to sneek up on me and swamp me and ate some yourself ? :)
Had a great time BS'n with Scooter in the pits and hopfully we can hook up for some lively trial riding any given Sunday.

Is it the 3rd again yet?

Well Trigger always warns the people he rides with to be careful if there is water on the trail. Now we know why...he's a duck!

Great report TJ! You definetely put in all the details that I forgot...and made it that much more amusing!!!!!

Jason...I'm glad you like my style! HAHA!!!!!! I decided if I wanted to play with the big boys I had to ride like one...It didn't quite work out that way, but I sure as hell tried!!!

I can't wait till next year...or...maybe we can do another one this year?? :aj: YEAHYEAHYEAH!!!!!!

LOL, yeah, Ill tell you, riding with better riders is a great way to learn and get better yourself, when you see them going faster than you normaly go and study where and how they are faster you just start doing what they do and getting better yourself. Learning to dirt ride is kinda hard because the slower you go the harder it is and paragon has a way of punishing you for going slow like no other place :) .

Special Thanks to:
DRN Dudes and Dudetts, you RULE!
Paragon for just being there and continuteing to strive to be most excellent.
THE WEATHER!!!! For producing two of the finest riding condition days I can recall despite the forcast of a$$, need I say shame on the weather Nancy's or did the weather say it for me? :) .
My wrist for heeling enough in less than a week from being all but unusable on Monday to be able to ride with only a bit of discomfort (after Advill) to make me spend most of the time in the seat.
Last and certainly not least, Blue Thunder! My trusty steed who's awesome suspension and trail agility allowed me to stay in the seat most of the day with out a single bail out!!!! The big WR ran superbly, started almost every time on the first kick and was rock solid all weekend long accept for a slow leak in the front tire :). I,,,,, I love you Blue! Sniff, sniff.

Oops, when copying posts from the other thread it also copied the poll and I can't get rid of it.

I'm glad (and jealous) you guys had so much fun...keep 'em coming!

I certainly hope we're going to get more ride reports....there were too many people there this weekend to have only a few reports!!!!!

Hey Junkie, I may be a duck, but I was a good looking duck at that! What a blast!!!!!!!!

Hey Trig...you're not alone! If it wasn't for Papa I would've been a sitting duck....almost drowning your bike is BAD! :|

Dan.. Sorry I didn't get out there on Sunday to meet ya. We ended up heading out around 7:30am Sunday morning. I didn't have time Saturday to bring my bike, but had an awesome wheeling experience. Looks like me and another buddy of mine will be coming up there for Neuroc (16th) and then stopping in Green on Sunday for our ride if you want to join us or follow us back from Paragon.

Sounds like I missed a great day out. I ran into someone on an Orange KTM getting ready to go up the steep hill over by the events on Saturday. He definatly knew you (If you are out there...I forget your name... sorry?)

That looked like some mean hillclimb... I would have probably wimped out on that one.. I dunno...You guys ran a nice clean line right up the center of it! I saw three thumpers and I believe a KX climb it! Nice job! I didn't see anyone come down it. (There are a couple of photos of the hill I speak of in my signature webshots page)

I'll definately be coming up there this season! Hey at least we talked on the phone.. haha

Thanks for the “warm” welcome to DRN community guys :-)

I had a great time and I’m pretty sure (despite some comments) that fun was had by all.
Originally I came to ride on Sat. only. But with the promise of nice weather and good riding company, I decided to stay for Sunday too.
Saturday a.m. I rode with Steve (XR400), Kevin (KX125), Bill (KDX200?), Steve and Bill (GasGas guys from Albany) , Dave-RMguy,......I think that’s it. (Sorry, don’t know all your DRN handles)
Everything went great until we came upon this “puddle” big and deep enough for synchronized swimming lesson. I took a nice little dip as I was exploring it (right down the middle - how else), when the bottom sort of disappeared and most of my bike with it. The water may have looked like coffee, but believe me it didn’t taste like it at all. Luckily, I made it out, but Bill’s KDX decided to go from aboveground to underwater stealth mode. After failing to resuscitate the lifeless Kawy, we were lucky to run into some quad riders (thanks guys!) willing to help and tow the bike all the way back to the parking lot. Then, before the end of the day, few of us went back out and tackled some really cool trails. I don’t remember the trail numbers or names, but you know which ones right?, the cool ones. (I hear you laughing Scooter)
The campfire/beer session was great, I wasn’t sure if my stomach hurt from riding or laughing.
I hit the sack around midnight. Thanks Steve(GasGas) for letting me share a hotel room (separate beds I assure you).
Sunday started awesome and as you all know, it remained that way for the rest of the day. A.M. ride started with Steve & Bill(GasGas), we were joined by KnobbieThrower and Ron. We found some wonderful sigletracks that just kept on winding in front of us.
After the lunch break...well...we all rode some more, right? Somehow, I don’t think that anyone actually regretted riding that...uhm...stuff. Let’s have a round of applause for the girls. They deserve it!
After most of the guys headed back, me and Steve (GasGas) decided to dare the Rock Gods and stared them right in their faces. It got ... i n t e r e s t i n g. Where was my HelmetCam! So, one broken shroud and one bent footpeg later we emerged victoriously from this “trail” that I have to remember for the next time we all ride :-)
It was great meeting you all, I definitely plan to keep in touch and can’t wait for another fun-filled weekend.

eugeneorange - “The Crazy Check” (actually Slovak, almost the same)

Everyone I was with had a great time (In between me breaking bikes) It was amazing with the amount of riders and Jeeps there, we actually ran into very few. Guess that's testament to the size of the property.Thanks to Scooter for telling us were to find the single track . The area around there is beautiful and we got to see my first bear on Friday night. I do think Woodsrider deserves some type of award for wearing those Lavender riding shorts out in public (He says they were blue, Yeah right) guess that color must go good with his skirt. :p

We'll be back again. But I think I better bring a couple of more bikes.

Hello to all who were there on Saturday. I had the dubious honor of being the submarine captain half way through the day. Sure looked a lot shallower than it was! Anyway, my thanks Steve and Kevin for helping me drag my bike out of the "lake". My sincere thanks to all those who helped with the trailside surgery to get my bike running again - especially to Gas Gas Bill who stayed for the duration offering his pearls of wisdom. Actually I learned a lot from him. A special thanks also to Kevin on the quad for towing me out. I definately owe you one! The whole thing had me so out of whack that I left my helmet, goggles, gloves, and chest protector behind on Steve's trailer. Shows you where my head was!!! Of course I topped it all off by forgetting my license and having to turn around and go back for it. Oh well, it's like they say......the worst day of riding is better than the best day of working. All in all I had a great time and Paragon is awesome (with the exception of trail 80!!!!). Hope to see you all at the next one assuming I get my bike back together sometime soon.

Hey Bill
Kevin has your gear.......or wait.......whats that I see on ebay?????
Just kidding he must have called ya already. Lets do it again soon

Hey everyone, nice reports. Scooter Dan, nice pics especially the three of Dave K. (OffRoadWarrior), Flubie (dirtybkr) and myself coming out of that "ignorant tight Jersey" woods section. I liked it so much I had to drag everyone through it on Sunday. Needless to say I didn't win any friends. :p

Well since Dan Joseph and Dave H. (RM_guy) are already bustin my chops I'll spill the beans. My consumption of cold, refreshing adult beverages on Saturday night exceeded my usual two-beer limit. I stumbled into our hotel room around 12:30, tripped over the crib and woke up Jr. Woods, Mrs. Woods' dog (who we snuck into the room) and of course Mrs. Woods who was not impressed. I probably got a total of three-hours sleep, got a firm lecture and had to promise to be home before 6:00 p.m. Flubie and Eugene (eugeneorange) picked me up at 7:30, which was still way too early. All day Sunday it felt like I was dragging and anchor. Flubie, Eugene, Steve M. (knobbiethrower) and Ron (rohnman) got in 25 miles of mostly singletrack in three hours before I had to load up and head for home. I did manage to pick up my license though.

Saturday turned out to be a pretty good day all things considered. I'm glad RV6junkie had fun when I led everyone down and then back up Howe Hill. It was actually a lot worse last year although that didn't stop a couple guys from having trouble with it on Sunday. Dave, I hope your shoulder and hand are feeling better, that was one heck of a get-off. Bill (Silver Bullet) to be on the safe side I'd tear your engine completely down. Get in touch with Dan Joseph, he works part-time at a Kawi dealer in CT. Flubie and I split off from the group, ran into Papakeith and Squeak and then discovered some great singletrack that eventually took us off the property. We did make our way back and came across Scooter Dan, Dave K., Lori (LoriKTM) and Chucke (Tree Jumper). Scooter Dan led us on a tour of more singletrack where Dave K. and I decided to wick it up a notch. People consider Dave K. a sadist and a number of people have told me Eugene is a sadist. I rode with both these guys and had a great time, but they're definitely not sadists.

Again it was great to meet everyone and I'm sorry I couldn't hang around longer. The way Dan Joseph was checking out my butt on Saturday I was getting nervous. :eek: At least I know I'll never let him ride my bike. Seriuosly though I'm glad that almost everyone had a good time. I know that 50+ miles of singletrack will keep me happy for another week.

Ohhhh Scooter you are soooooo funny!!!! :laugh:

If they send it out today I should be good for the weekend...I HOPE!! AHHHHH What will I ever do? :confused:

Thanks Scoot for your help...I certainly appreciate it!

I'm ready to start planning the next trip...next weekend? HAHAHA! No really I beleive that DRN should do Paragon again this year...maybe I'll do EVEN better... :)

Originally posted by WoodsRider
The way Dan Joseph was checking out my butt on Saturday I was getting nervous. :eek:

Click to expand...

What can I say. There's just something about a man in purple tights and a skirt that turns me on :eek:

What can I add that hasn't already been said?  An absolutely perfect weekend, filled with beautiful weather, great riding, and good friends.  It was way too short, but that will make the next one that much better.

Saturday we got on the road by 6:15am.  I knew it was going to be a good weekend, as we managed to make all the green lights through town on our way out.  ;)   We arrived about 9:30, got unloaded and signed in.  We were a little slow getting geared up, and a couple groups had taken off riding already.  PapaKeith mentioned that a group of beginners were going out, I decided to tag along.  After all, it was my first ride of the season, and I had all weekend to beat myself up.  We cruised around some easier trails and did a few little hill climbs in the morning.  TreeJumper and I tried to find an easier line back down a hill that my husband led us up, but in the end we crawled our way back down a loose rock hill.  All the while, Scooter is out and about with the camera of his, taking pictures of everyone. Thanks Dan!  The photos look great!  After some lunch we headed back out for some single track.  We made our way to the trail area without incident, but shortly after we started on the track Squeakygirl decided this wasn't her cup of tea yet.  So she and Papa headed back for some easier terrain.   Scooter took the rest of us on a great tour of some classic Paragon single track.  Sorry, I can't mention where it is, because it's off property limits and if I told ya I'd have to shoot ya. :confused:  The singletrack dumped out on a powerline area with a spectacular view of the valley.  Worth the few hairy rock gardens to get to it!  We made our way back, and met up with dirtybikr and Woodsrider, and rode some more singletrack until I ran out of water and requested a trip back to camp.  It was getting late in the afternoon anyway, and I didn't hear too many complaints about heading back.

Sunday started out with a trip down the now-famous Turtle Hill.   This hill is nearly a mile long descent, filled with rocks (some loose, most embedded) and has several twists and turns to make things interesting.  Thanks to a bit of pre-season trials practice, I was standing up for most of my ride down the hill.   Everyone made it down without incident, and we headed off to do several water crossings.  The spring rains had made the crossings deeper, and more interesting than usual this ride!  Trigger, on his XT350, made a point of always taking the "deep" line through the water.   This would bite him later, but that XT is a tractor and would take on anything.  Unfortunately, his bunny hop into a water hole proved to be a little too much when he hit a submerged rock and slid forward into the metal gas tank!  I think that sobered him up for, oh, about two minutes.  Then he wanted to go back and try it again!  We rode through a few more fun trails and mud puddles.  OffRoadWarrior suggested a "shortcut", which proved to be quite challenging, as it was a boulder-strewn garden, with sections of water and mud.  It dumped out on another pipeline, and we picked up speed again.  Back for some lunch, and then one final ride in the afternoon.  This time, RM_Guy and Eugene (the crazy Czech) were in the lead.  Started out innocently enough, taking some fun, fast trails back to Howe Hill.  A launch up the hill, where we stopped to get everyone together.  Of course, the trail from this point was non-existent, so we were all picking and fighting our way through the last 50 yards which was covered with lots of large loose rocks.  Some more fun single track up there, and then Eugene took over....

....and led us through hell.  Ok, it was really only heck. :)  Muddy, rock-strewn gardens were the norm on these trails, culminating in a rocky, twisty little stream crossing leading to a short but steep right-hand uphill.  A little too much throttle spun my bike to the ground, but it was enough to get over the hill.  Eugene and friends were there to help with the bike, and the others yet to make it across.  "This is the last of it" he says.  (yeah, I've heard THAT before!)  But, true to his word we were back on a logging road and to the pipeline after that.  A stop at Trail #19, where OffRoadWarrior played on the giant rocks with the trials bike.  Trigger decided his XT could do that too, and went out and proved that it couldn't. :eek:   Papakeith, not to be outdone, took his CR500 through the same boulders, all the way to the top!  (Way to go!)  Unfortunately, the way back down wasn't so smooth, and he dropped the bike near the bottom.   We headed back to the parking area, as it was starting to get late and most wanted to get a head start back home.

 A few fond farewell's, and we got into the truck and began our drive home.  We were too tired to unload at 8:30 that night, so the trailer still sits in the driveway.   It was great meeting some new people, and seeing familiar faces again.  The DRN family is the greatest group of people I know! :thumb:

Ok campers, turns out I get some web space with my cabel account, I scratched a quick page out in Word (yuk) but its got some of the better pics on it including Trigger and Lori's water woes :).
Warning, these are the full size pics, I have not had time to make thumbnails or cruch the pics down so bandwith challenged be ware, worth the dl time though :).
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jasnker/

Cool pics Jay...I didn't even realize you were taking any :)...oh well! I love the heading "A bunch of clowns" that's great! I feel like one of the guys now! ;)

What trail is the picture "The Trail Waits" from? Looks like a nice section that I haven't seen.

It's near the bottom of Turtle hill.

Jason, nice pics!